Madagascar’s Health Minister leads team to conduct a landmark surgery

shakirudeen taiwo

September 20, 2017 1:14 PM

The minister is a well known surgeon

In many African countries, being a health minister is a political position. It involves more paperwork and bureaucratic responsibilities than practical practices.

But for Madagascar's Minister of Health, Mamy Andriamanarivo, it is a role that is more than just a bureaucratic process.

Dr. Mamy Andriamanarivo picked up his scalpel and led a team of surgeons to separate conjoined Siamese twins in the Indian Ocean Island nation.

According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), the surgery was the first of its kind in Madagascar.

“Surgery was performed at the Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona hospital on September 13 to separate Siamese twins joined at the abdomen and lower thorax,” said Jean Marie Rasamimanana, the deputy technical director at the hospital.

“The separation of the five-month-old twins, Mitia and Fitia, who weighed 13 kilograms (29 pounds) and were delivered by caesarian section, involved the separation of their liver, ribs and diaphragm.”

Andriamanarivo noted after the surgery that it would have cost the country's medical system 100,000 euros ($120,000) if performed overseas.

In 2009, a medical team from the country successfully conducted a similar separation but the procedure was done in France.

Mamy Andriamanarivo is a medical practitioner, specialising as a Paediatric Surgeon.

shakirudeen taiwo